Blackpool Rock

I started lingering over your name

the delicate assembly of vowels

and consonants

that created a word

which hadn't passed my lips in a while

I had begun to know you solely through things

like narcissistic tendencies

and silk guitar strings

the tops of toothpaste tubes

unscrewed

lonely and left on the windowsill

you stuck in the gaps in my teeth

like a piece of Blackpool rock

causing the stains on my index to darken

and grooves in my bedpost to be pardoned

a sickening habit hard to defeat

a woman I was never meant to be

I woke last night from calling your name

cold again.